Questions in the light
Frequently asked questions
What this place is, how it works, and how to add your own story to the light.
- What is o11yparadise?
- o11yparadise is a collection of true stories about observability done right, from engineers who got it working. Each story describes a real win involving metrics, logs, traces, dashboards, or alerts, and ends with the practice that made it possible. The name uses o11y, the common numeronym for observability (o, eleven letters, y).
- Is this the opposite of o11yhorrors?
- Yes, in spirit. Where o11yhorrors collects the outages and nightmares, o11yparadise collects the calm: the incident caught early, the alert that fired exactly right, the quiet on-call week. Both are true, and both teach. One shows you what to avoid, the other shows you what to aim for.
- Are the stories real?
- Yes. Every story is based on a real experience. Service names, company names, and identifying details are changed or removed to protect the people and teams involved, but the wins and the practices behind them are genuine.
- Can I share my own observability success story?
- Yes. Use the share page to send your story. Every submission is read by a human before anything is published. Nothing goes live automatically, and you choose what name to publish under, including staying anonymous.
- Will my name or my employer be published?
- Only what you choose. You can submit under a handle, a generic role like SRE, payments, or no name at all. We recommend leaving out real company names, customer data, and anything that could identify a specific person.
- What makes a good observability success story?
- The best stories are specific and honest. They describe the setup, what you did right, the moment it paid off, and the practice behind it. A clear, repeatable practice is what turns a happy ending into something the next engineer can actually use.
- What does o11y mean?
- o11y is shorthand for observability. The 11 stands for the eleven letters between the o and the y, the same way i18n stands for internationalization and k8s for Kubernetes.
- How do you approve submissions?
- A submitted story is delivered privately for review and opened as a proposed change to the site. A maintainer reads it, edits lightly if needed, and approves it. Once approved, the story joins the collection for everyone to read.
Still have a question? Reach the keepers of the light at stories@o11yparadise.com.